On Wednesday, Greek Foreign Affairs Minister George Gerapetritis spoke with his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, and discussed the refugee situation following Azerbaijana's military seizure of historically and indigenously Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Greek foreign minister conveyed his country’s concern over the mass exodus of Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh and strong solidarity with the Armenian people, the ministry posted on X.
Moreover, the Greek minister reaffirmed that Greece "stands with Armenia and is prepared to provide humanitarian aid alongside the EU."
Gerapetritis also pledged to "support Armenia in international fora in order to raise awareness about the urgent need for a solution to the issue, and expressed Greece's readiness to assist Armenian refugees," added the ministry.
Meanwhile, senior Russian, United States and European Union diplomats met in secret on the eve of Azerbaijan’s lightning campaign to retake the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday.
Politico Europe reported Wednesday that US-EU-Russia talks on pressuring Baku to end its nine-month blockade of Karabakh took place on Sept. 17 in Istanbul.
Two days later, Azerbaijan’s forces launched a two-day "anti-terrorism" offensive, setting off Nagorno-Karabakh’s dissolution as an unrecognised state and a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians to Armenia as they flee in terror.
“Certain contacts on Karabakh indeed took place,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday.
“It wasn’t exactly as described [in Politico Europe]. There are many inaccuracies and mistakes in this material,” Peskov added without elaborating further.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova characterised the meeting as a “regular exchange of views” earlier Wednesday.
"There was nothing secret about this meeting,” Zakharova told reporters, saying Moscow had been approached by Washington and Brussels.
She confirmed that Igor Khovayev, the Foreign Ministry’s special representative on Armenian-Azerbaijan normalisation was Moscow’s envoy at the talks.
The United States dispatched Louis Bono, senior adviser for Caucasus negotiations, while the European Union sent its representative for the region Toivo Klaar, according to Politico Europe.
Such meetings have become rare in the 19 months since Russia invaded Ukraine and fell under Western sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
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